Shiva: Goddess of Ice and Snow

(This was a paper I wrote for my work history class. Your supposed to write a Myth. So I did. I incuded a few of the Greek Gods, we're studying them and it was allowed. I actually want to expand this to be a full story. Not the limited three page thing we had to write. =D )

SHIVA
Goddess of Ice and Snow

Shiva, the goddess of Ice and Snow. Ruler of the North and South Hemisphere. Ruler of the mountaintops, and the frozen tundra. Ruler and care taker of the wolves, polar bears, and penguins. This is her story.
Sister of the fire god Hephaestus, no one is sure how she was born. But is told from generation to generation and now is penned on paper, was that her brother Hephaestus, the jealous God of Fire, set her on the top of the Himalayan Mountains, and left her in the hopes that she wouldn`t survive. At that time, the tops of the mountains only got cold at night, and creatures roamed all over their sides.
Little Shiva would have died, had not a pack of wolves happened across her. They had recently fed, and were in thought of leaving her, when a female who had shortly before given birth to a little of cubs, clamed the baby as her own. Raised by the wolves, she knew she was different than they, but at the same time knew she had a connection with them. And so she stayed, learning the way of the mountains and how to stay warm in the icy cold nights. It is told how after years and years, she eventually collected enough fur from her wolf friends to sew her own wolf cloak.

Many years past, and Shiva continued to live among the wolves, growing to be a tall beautiful woman. Hephaestus, her fire-controlling brother, happened to be crossing the same mountains he had placed the baby Shiva on. When he chanced to see her among the pack a wolves, alive and well, he grew angry and created a huge forest fire that burned down Shiva`s home. She fled, along with her wolf friends, to the barren mountaintop where her brother`s fire could not reach her. There, though a strange dream, she was told who she was. She woke the next morning to find the first snowflakes falling on the world.
Another dream told her that her brother would not stop hunting her until she was dead, and so she fled the mountains. Heading across land, she traveled south, to the shores of the ocean.
When she reached the ocean, she found her brother there, waiting for her. There they fought for the first time, fire against ice; ice against fire. Hephaestus would create a wave of red hot coals and fling them at Shiva, only to have them sucked of their heat by a blast of snow. They say the battle is what knocked Australia away from China and created all the little islands around it. But wherever it took place, what is sure is that Hephaestus had the upper hand. When Shiva realized she could not beat her brother, she sent a cry in the wind for someone to save her.

Just as Hephaestus was about to strike the final blow, a bear came running and scooped her up onto his back. Then he leapt out into the ocean and began to swim. Hephaestus stood on the shore and cursed them both, but could do nothing fire does not work on water.

The bear continued to swim for days, maybe weeks, but finally he began to slow and tire. Realizing his need for rest, Shiva created an iceberg for him and her to sleep on.
Now, there are many different tales about how the bear died. Maybe from exhaustion, maybe from some trick of Hephaestus, no one knows for sure. But one way or another, the story`s say the bear died that night.

When Shiva woke the next morning, she was devastated. Because her heart was frozen with pain, she attempted to freeze the world over, creating the first Ice Age. The other Gods complained to Zeus, the King of the Gods, and he went and spoke to Shiva personally. He had been watching her and her brother since the beginning. After talking with her, she stopped her freezing of the world, but continued to keep the cap at the top and bottom, squishing her brother to only controlling the center of the earth.

She has continued to live there, her servants being the polar bears, penguins, and wolves that live around the world. On a cold night when the wind blows in the winter, and the first snowflakes are starting to fall, you can still hear her cry on the wind as she called for help.

Wow, it is a really great story, I especially love the part about how that was how the ice age happend! Great work, you should definatly continue the story at full length instead of just the three page thing!
I would read it!

That was an awesome myth. Did your teacher make you you follow a real myth's structure? Did you use a myth to help base yours on. If so, which one was it? I really like the structure of this myth. Everything follows together....over good. Awesome job!

Hey, I really like it. I was searching on the Internet for Greek Gods and i came across your essay on Shiva. I like the story. It runs very smoothly. Do you write alot? I, too, write stories, but just for fun. Anyways, I thought it was amazing how you came up with all of that.

shiva is indeed a powerful ice goddess i am a pagan witch and a do consult with shiva for snow and keeping winter around since winter is not what it used to be in pa keeping balance of seasons i figure is agood thing blessed be to all that read this